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Reliable Man Three-Year-Olds in the Spotlight at Te Rapa

9 Feb 2018

Exciting young sire Reliable Man will have three exciting 3YO’s stepping out at Te Rapa tomorrow as they look to progress into late summer and autumn features over the next few months. The Group 2 Sir Tristram Fillies Classic over 2000m – won by 2017 Horse of the Year Bonneval - will see the Group 1 placed Belle du Nord and the Group 2 placed Kapoor stepping to 2000m for the first time in their careers.

Belle du Nord heads the filly’s feature on ratings and comes off a strong performance against the colts in the Group 1 Levin Classic at Wellington where she finished a close second to Age of Fire (Fastnet Rock) and ahead of Savvy Coup (Savabeel) & Rock on Wood (Redwood). Kapoor also brings good form into the race with a win, five seconds and a fourth from her seven starts as a three-year-old – her latest effort being a very unlucky effort when finishing fourth to NZ Derby favourite Scott Base in the Karaka 3YO Classic after suffering extreme interference at the 300m mark.

Among her placings this season Kapoor has finished second to race rival Dijon Bleu in the Listed Soliloquy Stakes, second to Demonitization at Tauranga, second to On the Rocks in the Listed Trevor Eagle Memorial, and second to Contessa Vanessa in the Group 2 Eight Carat Classic; so a win would be a fair reward for her consistency against quality opposition.

The third of the Reliable Man three-year-olds entered for Te Rapa on Saturday is the impressive last start winner Slow Hands from the Lance O’Sullivan/Andrew Scott stable. A strapping grey gelding, Slow Hands surprised some pundits when he won convincingly on debut at Matamata and he makes a good jump in class tomorrow, going from a midweek maiden to a Rating 65 grade race on a Premier raceday.

There is no doubt that Slow Hands will have derived a great deal of benefit from his first outing and natural improvement should see him be competitive again as he looks to the next step in his career.